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City Sightseeing Tours

City Sightseeing Tours is an international company with OpenTop Sightseeing Tour Buses operating in many cities throughout the world. In the UK they cover 30 cities/towns. They operate as a Hop On and Hop Off as much as you like service at any of the bus stops on the route as well as allowing you to see all the best sights and attractions that the town or city has to offer.  This may be a good way of getting around some of our cities as well as a cost effective way to see and photograph the major tourist attractions of that area. Being Open Top buses if you sit on the top in some towns/cities they will go at a slow enough speed that you will be able to photograph as you are travelling along.

Cities and Towns covered in the UK include:

Taking the links above will take you to a page on the City Sightseeing website which gives details on what is covered on the tour, where the start point is, how long a tour takes as well as leaflets, maps, timetables, prices and the ability to book your tickets online.

Some of the facilities on offer include: in selected cities between multi-lingual commentary or live guide and an exclusive Kids Commentary in some destinations.

Duration of Tour: Most tours last about one hour, but some major towns and cities it could take longer. Start and finish times of the tours vary depending on whether its a winter or summer tour, but typically during winter months they start at 10am with the last tour at 3pm and in the summer months 9am, with the last tour at 5pm, but you will need to check the individual tour information to confirm this. In most cases they do operate 7 days a week, but as each tour is a franchise of the overall there will be differences so again check with each individual city.

Hop On - Hop Off: Their tour buses operate on an agreed continuous route and along this route there are key points of interest and attractions where stop points have been selected to allow you to visit these places of interest. Simply hop off where you want and return to the same stop to continue your tour. During the summer months buses can be running as frequently as every 10 minutes, in winter it could be longer. They recommend that if you are unfamiliar with the town/city you are visiting that you take on complete circuit and listen to the commentary and identify at which points you might want to get off and visit, and then re-use the bus to get around to those sights, as tickets are valid for a full 24 hour period. The number of stops on a tour will vary from town to town, but London for example has 70 Ho-On-Hop-Off stops.

Ticket Information: When booking a ticket you select a date that you want to visit, however if you have booked this in advance and should your plans change that that's okay as the tickets are valid for 3 months from the chosen date.

Tickets on the day you arrive are valid for 24 hours, although some areas offer 2 and 3 day tickets.

If you retain your ticket after use, you can use it to get a 10% discount off another City Sightseeing tour ticket.

You can buy tickets in advance on their website, or from the driver of the tour bus or ticket seller on the street and in some cases some Tourist Information Centres sell them.

An Example of what could be done:

A typical tour of Stratford on Avon takes in all the Shakespeare sites including:

• Shakespearean Houses: Shakespeare's Birthplace, Anne Hathaway's Cottage, Mary Arden's House, New Place, Nash's House and Hall's Croft.
• The Royal Shakespeare Theatre where the Bard's plays are performed for the majority of the year.
• Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried, protected by a cursed tombstone.
• The Old 15th Century Grammar School where Shakespeare was educated.

and you also get to tour through the scenic Warwickshire countryside, visiting Wilmcote, the village where Mary Arden's House (Shakespeare's mother) can be found. The total tour if taken as one trip round lasts for about 60 minutes.

Take a look at their website for full details of what is on offer, latest prices and to purchase online.

For up to date prices and offers always check their website.